Bulgaria's first progress report since joining the EU in January, published on Wednesday stated that the country has made some progress in the area of agricultural funds, aviation and food safety and animal health.

No safeguard clauses were applied in the four areas. Still, the report on Bulgaria's progress on accompanying measures following its accession pays too little attention to the four areas. The report mainly focuses on the justice system, the fight against corruption and organized crime.

Concerning Bulgaria's agriculture funds, the report states that the country is not well prepared to implement an integrated administration and control system (IACS), as it would not function properly from the point of Bulgarian accession. The European Commission has established a safeguard mechanism that could be applied to Bulgaria if the elements of the IACS or the other elements necessary to ensure the correct payment to farmers and for parts of rural development expenditures are not set-up or are seriously deficient.

Bulgaria has already implemented part of the IACS elements; still the Commission requires further efforts and rapid action in order to ensure that on-the-spot payment checks are carried out in the coming months in an effective manner.

Concerning aviation safety, the country has verified deficiencies regarding its weak administrative capacity in regulation, supervision and oversight of carriers and organizations involved in the maintenance of aeronautical products, the report states. Nevertheless, Bulgaria has already started to improve its capacity on safety supervision by withdrawing the certificates of four cargo carriers, suspending the certificate of fifth and applying restrictions to a sixth.

In the area of animal health measures have been taken concerning swine fever. A further review of the efforts in the area is planned for September 2007.

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